Go Billy! Or Not.

You know, maybe it was the recent piece he wrote on politics and art in the Wall St. Journal that got him thinking on such terms, but it sure does seem like Terry Teachout hated Billy Elliott because he disagreed with its politics. After all, he does specifically critique it through a Right Wing lens (again, without coping to it in the review). Why Right Wing? Because it's a distinctly Right Wing frame to say that distaste for Margaret Thatcher is Marxist, or that pro-Union sentiment is "feel-good socialist kitsch".  

This again is not a problem.  I critique things and make judgements about them on political grounds all the time.  That's okay, you just need to cop to it and be open about it. It's the gesture towards objectivity, the idea that simply by not disclosing one's political viewpoint, one can be immune to having that viewpoint affect one's view of art, that I think gets to me here.

Comments

[DJA]

I thought it was common knowledge that Teachout is an unabashed conservative? I mean, look at his blogroll (http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight) -- apart from token lefties Roy Edroso and Lance Mannion (they are, I believe, meatspace friends with Teachout) and a few others, it runs the gamut of modern wingnuttery, from the pitiable (Ann Althouse, James Llileks) to the clueless (Ross Douthat, Megan McArdle) to the deranged (Roger Simon, NRO's The Corner). I'm not sure I've ever read anything by Teachout where he lays his political leanings on the table, but I'm also not sure he's trying to hide it either.

Teachout is also friendly with my own mentor, Bob Brookmeyer. They can't possibly agree on much, politically. I suspect the vast majority of Teachout's social circle vehemently disagree with his politics. He is someone who probably needs to do a lot of compartmentalization just to function in his daily life. I've said before that I do not understand the mentality of Republican jazz fans. But I'm told Lee Atwater was sincere in his love of the blues...

[freeman]

Man, I'd love to know where we'd all be without the socialist unions bargaining for reasonable wages and regular work hours.